Split Soul
by BlackLadyCharon
Summary: Can the Goddess of Death guide the Angel of Death back to his proper place?


Due to an impertent Muse asserting her authority, I'm  
  
finally starting this one.  
  
Kalliope the MewThree: This is both work and revenge  
  
for being stuck in the middle of Isis no Mugen.  
  
Anyway, this is Ash X Hotaru, with Pikachu making  
  
sarcastic 'Pikas' through out.  
  
Ash's Age: 23  
  
Hotaru's age: 20  
  
Bakura Wolfie: Growll, yap yap growl snarl grr.  
  
(Translation: The twip doesn't own any of the  
  
characters here.)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Split Soul  
  
~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The bad thing about drinking, Ash Ketchum decided as  
  
he poured another vodka, was not killing his  
  
braincells. It was not the hangover in the morning.   
  
And it was not Pikachu sticking his head in every  
  
second glass and draining it. No, the bad part about  
  
drinking was that it didn't obliterate his memories.   
  
Furthermore, it didn't obliterate the large hole in  
  
his memories.  
  
Pikachu sighed as Ash got that comptemplative look on  
  
his face that Pikachu recognized so well after ten  
  
years. Ash was now going to brood himself into one of  
  
his moods, which meant that any challenger who entered  
  
the Black Lightning Gym was gonna get fried. And it  
  
was all Giovanni's fualt...  
  
------Flashback-----  
  
Ash's eyes mad with fury at the mutilated forms of  
  
Misty, Brock, and their Pokemon. Giovanni's taunting  
  
laugh, amused at the supposedly helpless boy. Ash  
  
closing his eyes, frighteningly quiet, while Pikachu  
  
prayed. Ash's eyes opening, brandy colored, soulless  
  
ice while a cruel smile played across his lips. Ash  
  
summoning the obsidian Shadow Glaive and walking  
  
forward, killing anyone who got into his path to  
  
Giovanni. Ash answering Giovanni's screams of "What  
  
the fuck are you?" with deadly calm.  
  
"I am the dark judge and jury, second only to the  
  
Goddess of Death. I am the Lord of Death. I am  
  
Azrael, you fucking bastard, and I will SEE YOU IN  
  
HELL!"  
  
The Glaive flung to the side after Giovanni's was a  
  
mess of bloody ribbons from the neck down as Ash knelt  
  
on the bloodstained floor, folded his hands in his  
  
lap, and stared with mad incomprehension at Misty and  
  
Brock's bodies as Pikachu felt the Other within Ash's  
  
mind and body retreat. Ash's self-mocking screams as  
  
the Officer Jenny in charge finally dragged him away  
  
from the scene.  
  
"I am fortune's fool!"(1)  
  
------End Flashback-----  
  
"Chaa..." Pikachu muttered sadly, longing for the old  
  
days and the old Ash. He'd known about the Other  
  
within Ash, had known about it from the very start.   
  
As it's familiar demon he'd better have. But it had  
  
never started expressing itself until after Misty and  
  
Brock died. Ash's best friends in the entire world.   
  
Not his only friends, not his most powerful friends,  
  
but his best friends. Pikachu turned around, to see  
  
eyes of violet shadow giving Ash's back a death glare.  
  
One look at HER was enough to tell Pikachu that  
  
worrying about challenger's getting squashed in a gym  
  
battle was now minor. VERY minor. The Goddess of  
  
Death was here looking for her delinquent servant  
  
Lord, which meant all of Hell must have finally  
  
realized that the Angel of Death wasn't watching them.  
  
***  
  
He was drunk, and he looked like a hard core goth.   
  
Spiked black dog collar, black trenchcoat, black  
  
t-shrit with 'Your village called: Their idiot is  
  
missing' on it in yellow print, ripped black jeans,  
  
black boots and black fingerless gloves. Not to  
  
mention the double pierced ears, one set of Celtic  
  
crosses and one set of Celtic knots, and the 'I'm a  
  
badass' look. his hair was actually fairly neat,  
  
despite the messy bangs that fell into the world weary  
  
eyes.  
  
Hotaru was not there for the way he looked. She was  
  
there to make him get back to work. But  
  
Setsuna-Mama'd never said that he looked like a fallen  
  
angel. A fallen angel any girl'd be glad to find in  
  
her bed. Hotaru yanked her thoughts out of the gutter  
  
and spun him around to face her.  
  
"Are you Ash Ketchum, called the Lord of Death?"  
  
"Yeah, little girl, you wanna make something outta  
  
it?"  
  
"I'm Hotaru Tomeo, the Goddess of Death, and I'm here  
  
to kill you."  
  
"Look Lady... uh, could you point that glaive  
  
elsewhere?" Despite the weapon resting at his throat,  
  
Ash's heart was speeding up from the woman holding it,  
  
not from fear. She was petie and slender, but ripe in  
  
ways he couldn't ignore. Her black hair spilled down  
  
to the floor in a light absorbing river, and her pale  
  
skin was emphasized by her black and purple jumpsuit.   
  
Her nails were neat, and her face would cause angels  
  
to suicide from jealousy. Even her eyes, two cold,  
  
remote violet pools spoke to him. She was heaven,  
  
hell, and a perfect mate all rolled into one.  
  
Shit, he was actually getting hard. Time to divert  
  
his thoughts. He ran his fingers lightly down the  
  
edge of her glaive, leaving a faint trail of red along it.  
  
  
  
"Not my blood pumping out from severed arteries, la petite chatte(2), but a small death, a small killing with no price. This time." He raised his bloody fingers and licked three of them clean, waiting, He knew without knowing how he knew that she must accept.   
  
Hotaru looked at him suspisciously, realizing that he was tapping into Azrael's memories of Saturian blood rites without knowing it. He'd offered a small death with no rules or obligations. She shanrled before trailing her own fingers across the smaller blade of her glaive as she took it away from Ash's throat, licking off three of them befor reluctantly proffering the still bloody ones. Blood sharing was too intimate to her, even at this level.  
  
Ash pinned her wrist with his clean hand, respecting her desire to get the rite over with and quickly cleaned the blood off of her fingers, wondering why he was doing this. Pikachu was wondering too, but suspected it had something to do with the Other and the strong desire smells coming from both Ash and this Hotaru girl, which was why he hadn't Thunderbolted the girl. Ash released her hand, slowly, then proffered his own.  
  
Hotaru almost whimpered. She'd managed to avoid even the smallest of ritual blood lettings for most of this life and this boy had gone and forced her into one. She'd felt his power and the split in his very soul because of it when he'd tasted her blood, and she felt it even stronger when she took the blood he offered her in return. She wiped her mouth and sighed.  
  
"I suppose I owe you an explaination."  
  
Ash nodded and held Pikachu close, waiting for Hotaru to continue.  
  
"I know you don't remember, but it's time you took up your duties again."  
  
"What duties?"  
  
"Guarding the Hell Gates."  
  
"... This is a LONG story, isn't it?"  
  
"It is indeed. Very long."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TBC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Okay, I know Ash is a lot OOC here, but this version's been pretty badly scarred.  
  
Kalliope: As for the blood sharing rites, that'll be explained later. Suffice it to say that the one used here was, by Saturian standards, almost completely impersonal. You'll KNOW when it gets intimate, trust me.  
  
To Ran and Myst Lady: Sorry if you think this is overboard on the dramatics, but it's just what it came to me as.  
  
1=Shakesphere, Romeo and Juliet.  
  
2= french, meaning 'Little cat'. 


End file.
